DAVANAGERE, May 5: The honeymoon between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Lok Shakti here seems to be ending as the Lok Shakti workers are sore with the BJP's attitude toward them. The Lok Shakti at a meeting held here on Monday, has decided to field its own candidate for the coming Assembly by-polls ignoring the alliance it had with the BJP during the Lok Sabha elections, party sources said."We have decided to field Srinivas Basapathi as our party candidate," party sources said. "There can't be any alliance possible as they (BJP) were not in good terms with us even during Lok Sabha elections," the party spokesman told The Indian Express. "Our party workers were used to merely arrange BJP meetings," he added.
In the meeting, many leaders, including senior Dal leader who joined Lok Shakti K G Maheshwarappa, said individual contest by Lok Shakti will brighten the chances of its candidate's victory.
The constituency is not represented by BJP. The Congress is holding the seat now. During therecent visit of B S Yediyurappa, K S Eshwarappa to Davanagere, none of the Lok Shakti workers were present with BJP activists to greet their counterparts. "This sort of a rift between the two may harm the alliance in the by-elections, but let the BJP men also come with us hand in hand to fight unitedly," party sources said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
